My 7x great grandfather Edward Rowell is first mentioned in the Surry County, Virginia records on 1 May 1677 when he appeared in court and entered into an agreement with Samuel Cornell [Cornwell] to serve a six-year term as an indentured servant:

“Edward Rouwell, a youth servant to Samuel Cornell coming in without Indenture, the said Rouwell and Cornell have agreed in Court that the said Rouwell, Servant shall serve the said Cornell, six years & be free which is ordered to be performed.”^[1]

Nothing is known of Edward Rowell’s life before his arrival in Virginia, but the wording of the court order does provide clues.  Described as a “youth” servant, Edward Rowell had not yet reached the age of majority. The wording also suggests Edward Rowell was already working for Cornwell prior to the May 1 court session. He probably arrived in Virginia in either late 1676 or 1677 (the first day of the New Year back then was March 25). This would have made Edward Rowell about 14 years old when he stepped of the that small ship into a new world.

Edward Rowell came into Virginia without Indenture. Most people that came to Virginia in that period came to Virginia with an Indenture or contract already in hand spelling out the terms of the arrangement. The person paying for the person’s passage or whomever they sold the contract to in Virginia was the employer. The person paying the passage also received 50 acres of land as an incentive to bring over more colonists.       

How might a 14-year-old boy find himself alone sailing across the Atlantic leaving behind everything he had ever known with no contract in hand? Perhaps he was among the more than 5,000 English children kidnapped and brought to Virginia and Maryland during the 1600s and early 1700s.  During the period from 1672-1704, 48 children between the ages of 9-17 came to Virginia without indenture and ended up in Surry County alone.  State sanctioned kidnapping was not uncommon for poor, uneducated and unemployed children in England.^[2]

Young Edward Rowell thus began his term of indenture for Cornwell, which was set to end on 1 May 1683. Surry County records include parish tithe lists from 1668-1703 and among them is Edward Rowell who is listed as a tithable in the household of Samuel Cornwell in 1677, 1678 and 1679. In both 1680 and 1681, he is listed as a tithable of the Widow Cornwell. In 1682, Edward Rowell, now about age 19, was head of his own household paying tax on himself – a full year before his indenture was supposed to end. He is listed as head of his own household from that point forward.^[3] How does one get out of a year of hard labor owed by contract? One marries the widow, which is exactly what Edward Rowell did!     

At Surry County Court in September 1683, Edward Rowell and Katherine Rowell filed an accounting of the Samuel Cornwell’s estate, which noted that the estate was to be divided into five parts between Catherine the relict of said Cornwell and four children including Elizabeth, Mary, Samuel and Susanna Cornwell.^[4] On 14 Sep 1683, Surry County court records state that “Edward Rowell, William Foreman and Charles Williams, to pay Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary, Susannah, orphans of Samuel Cornwell, dec’d, their part of their late father’s estate when of age.”^[5]   

Edward and Katherine Rowell’s accounting of the estate of Samuel Cornwell

Samuel Cornwell’s wife was Katherine Hunnicutt, daughter of Augustine Hunnicutt I. She was born about 1660, married Cornwell about 1675 and had four children by the time he died in 1680.  She was probably no older than 20 and a widow with four young children, but she controlled an estate worth nearly 20,000 pounds of tobacco. Edward Rowell appears to have married Katherine (Hunnicutt) Cornwell about 1682. To date I have found no other mention of Katherine Rowell in Surry County records. She was the mother of his eldest son Edward Rowell, Jr. who was born about 1685. He first appears as a tithable of his fathers in 1701 the year he turned 16.^[6]  Katherine (Hunnicutt) Cornwell Rowell was dead by 1694 when Edward Rowell married his second wife, Elizabeth Cooper, daughter of John and Margaret (———–) Cooper, who Edward Rowell married by May 1694 as evidenced by the following record:   

“This day (between March 1693 – May 1694) appeared in Court Edward Rowell who married Eliza. Cooper and acknowledged that he had Received of Augustine Hunnicutt who married Margaret the Relict & Executrix of John Hodge the whole of the said Margaret’s gift to the said Elizabeth and did discharge the said Hunnicutt from the same.”^[7]

Interestingly, Edward Rowell married first Katherine, a daughter of Augustine Hunnicutt I and second Elizabeth Cooper, stepdaughter of Augustine Hunnicutt II who had married Margaret (———-) Cooper Hodges Hunnicutt as her third husband. This illustrates very well the practice of frequent remarriage in 17th century Virginia creating all sorts of family ties. Edward Rowell appears regularly in Surry County records until his death about 1729. As was customary for men at the time, he was active in the community in terms of serving in the local militia, on a jury, as an executor or as one the appraisers of an estate. 

A September 1710 Surry County Court record is of particular interest. Edward Rowell was issued a certificate for 50 acres of land for “importation of himself into this colony, he having made oath as the law directs.”^[8]  As noted earlier, Edward Rowell came to Virginia without indenture and entered into a contract with Samuel Cornwell. Cornwell would have paid his passage and as a result Cornwell or his heirs would have been entitled to the 50 acres.

Why would they not have claimed it and let it go to Edward Rowell? This is further evidence that Edward Rowell married Katherine (Hunnicutt) Cornwell. The 50 acres would have automatically passed to his eldest son – Edward Rowell, Jr. who would have been Katherine (Hunnicutt) Cornwell Rowell’s youngest child and a half-brother to Samuel, Elizabeth, Mary and Susannah Cornwell. In 1710, Edward, Jr. would have been about 25 years old and his elder Cornwell siblings had already received an inheritance from their father.     

Edward Rowell (bottom entry) received a certificate for 50 acres for importation of himself into the Colony in 1710

Edward and Elizabeth (Cooper) Rowell would go on to have several children before he made his will 29 March 1727.^[9]

In the name of God Amen.  I Edward Rowell of Surry County being in health of body and sound and disposing mind and memory God be Praised to make and ordain this my last Will and Testament, my soul to Almighty God that gave it Trusting through the Merits of Jesus Christ to Obtain free Pardon of all my Sins, my body to the Earth from whence it came and to those & worldly goods it hath pleased God of his great Mercy to make me Steward of in this world I dispossess thereof as followeth:

I give and bequeath to my Son Edward Rowell Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Son Richard Rowell Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Daughter Eliza now wife of Matthew Ellis Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Daughter Mary Rowell Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Daughter Margaret Rowell Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Daughter Jemima Rowell Thirty Shillings

I give and bequeath to my Son Samuel Rowell Thirty Shillings, one heifer of two or three years old and my little gun

I give and bequeath to my loving wife Eliz^a all the rest and remainder of my Estate after my debts, funeral charges, and legacies are paid to whom I appoint my sole Executrix of this my last Will & Testament.  In Testimony of all which I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty ninth day of March 1727.

                                                                                    his

Signed and sealed in my presence                  Edw     ER       Rowell

William Edwards                                                        mark

Ethelred Taylor       

Copy of Edward Rowell’s Surry County will dated 29 March 1729

An inventory^[10] of his estate was presented at Surry County Court on 17 September 1729. 

Edward Rowell’s 1729 Estate Inventory

Transcription: A True and Perfect Inventory of the Estate of Edward Rowell, Deceased

5 cows and calves, 4 cows, 4 three year old cattle and 5 year old ditto.  20 sheep, 4 hogs, 4 yearlings,, 2 sows and 6 pig, 1 old horse, 1 mare, 3 feather beds & furniture & a small bed to lie in a couch, 4 chairs, 2 old tables, 2 old spinning wheels, 1 pail, 4 old chests, 5 cider casks, 2 Tobacco hogsheads, 9 old barrels, 4 old baskets, 1 old fan, 15 dishes, 9 plates, 2 old porringers [soup bowls], 1 small basin, 1 quart tankard, 2 dozen spoons, 2 earthen porringers, 3 jugs, 4 cups, 8 plates, 1 — funnel, 1 grater, 1 pepperbox, an old pewter baker, 2 pint bottles, 1 quart bottle, 1 gallon bottle, and a pottle bottle, 1 old earthen pan, 1 old cream pot, 2 frying pans, 3 iron pots, 3 pot racks, 1 spit, 1 pair fire tongs, 1 smoothing iron and one 30 gallon brass kettle.

No land is mentioned in Edward Rowell’s will; however, Virginia law at that time would have made it unnecessary to do so as the land would have gone to Edward’s eldest son, Edward Rowell, Jr. as his heir-at-law with his widow retaining a dower right to one-third of his estate for life unless she remarried. No deed for either Edward Rowell, Sr. or Edward Rowell, Jr. has been found. From his inventory it is evident Edward Rowell, Sr. did not own any slaves. He was also illiterate as he signed his will with his mark.  Note the word “old” is listed as a descriptive throughout his rather meager inventory.  

My Rowell line:

EDWARD¹ ROWELL, b.c. 1662, w. d. 29 Mar 1727, Surry County, VA, inv. presented 17 September 1729, m. (1^st), abt. 1682, Katherine Hunnicutt, b.c. 1660, d.c., by 1693, (2^nd) bef. May 1694, Elizabeth Cooper, b.c. 1664, daughter of John Cooper and Margaret (———-), issue:   

RICHARD² ROWELL, b.c. 1694, Surry County, Virginia, d. 1746, Surry County, Virginia, m. abt. 1730, Mary (———-), poss. widow of Thomas Crews [d. 1728]; issue:

RICHARD³ ROWELL, b.c. 1733, d.c. 1792/3, m. Sarah Warren, daughter of Thomas and Lucy (——–) Warren, issue:

RICHARD⁴ ROWELL, b.c. 1763, Surry County, Virginia, d. 1793/4, Surry County, Virginia, m. about 1785, Sarah Gray, d. 1826, Surry County, Virginia, issue:

RICHARD⁵ ROWELL, b.c. 1791, Surry County, Virginia, d. May 1855, Surry County, Virginia, m. 6 March 1823, Surry Co., VA, Rebecca Holt, b.c. 1802, d. June 1847, Surry County, Virginia, daughter of Francis and Elizabeth (Webb) Holt, issue:

PATRICK HENRY⁶ ROWELL, b. June 1834, Surry County, Virginia, m. 21 Jan 1878, Sallie Judkins Berryman, 8 Nov 1844, Surry County, Virginia, d. 16 Aug 1933, Surry County, Virginia, daughter of William Holt & Sarah Honeycutt (Judkins) Berryman, issue:

WILLIAM RICHARD⁷ ROWELL, b. 25 July 1886, Surry County, Virginia, d. 27 February 1968, Surry County, Virginia, m. 25 January 1911, Lucy Baxter Edwards, b. 11 December 1891, Surry County, Virginia, d. 29 May 1973, Gloucester County, Virginia, daughter of Sidney Baxter and Lucy Rowell (Berryman) Edwards, issue:

MARIAN BERRYMAN⁸ ROWELL, b. 4 October 1914, Surry County, Virginia, d. 12 October, Gloucester County, Virginia, m. 25 January 1937, Paul Newton Craig, b. 3 April 1914, Pitcairn, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, d. 28 December 2001, Gloucester County, Virginia, son of Hugh Mott and Dora Agnes (Bailey) Craig.

PAUL FRANKLIN⁹ CRAIG, b. 1941, Newport News, Virginia m. Rebecca Suzanne Eisenbeis, b. 1943. d. 2009

PAUL STEVEN¹⁰ CRAIG, B. 1964, Newport news, Virginia

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^[1] Surry County, Virginia Orders Part 1 1671-1691, p. 140

^[2] Phillips, Richard Hayes. (2013). Without Indentures: Index to White Slave Children in Colonial Court Records (Maryland and Virginia), (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company), pp. vii-xviii, 236-238    

^[3] MacDonald, Edgar & Slatten, Richard. (1984) Surry County [Virginia] Tithables 1668-1703, (Baltimore: Clearfield Company by Genealogical Publishing Company), pp. 31, 37, 41, 46, 52, 57, 67, 74, 78, 85, 90, 95, 100, 104, 109, 120, 129, 133, 147, 151, 154, 165, 171, 177

^[4]Surry County Will Book 2, p. 333

^[5]Davis, Eliza Timberlake. (1980) Surry County Records, Surry County, Virginia 1652-1684, p. 126

^[6] MacDonald, Edgar & Slatten, Richard. (1984) Surry County [Virginia] Titheables 1668-1703, (Baltimore: Clearfield Company by Genealogical Publishing Company), p. 165

^[7] Surry County Court Records, Book V – 1691-1700, p. 44

^[8] Haun, Weynette Parks. (1992). Surry County, Virginia, Court Records 1700-1711, Book VI, p. 103

^[9] Surry County Deeds, Wills, Etc. Book 7, 1715-1730, p. 927

^[10] Surry County Deeds, Wills, Etc. Book 7, 1715-1730, p. 968

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